Do I believe in ghosts?

No.

That was quick.  Well I used to, but then I started thinking about it.  I’ve had my time of thinking about different ways of explaining the inexplicable, and have bored many friends for hours with my somewhat haphazard theories about mental magnetism, Houdini, and spiritualism.

To save yourself a similar journey I strongly suggest you listen to The Infinite Monkey Cage discussing Science and the Supernatural.
I’d love to say that the experiences of my past, of ghosts in my parents house, and phenomena on former battlefields, had convinced me of “something” beyond what could be explained by science. However, as I’ve grown older I’ve noticed that I do not “feel” the way I used to, but instead of putting this down to some loss of “power” I put it down to questioning my surroundings more, and having broader experience that allows me to explain to myself what I have (and am) experiencing psychologically and physically.

This episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage addresses why some people are more susceptible to seeing patterns in random noise, why some patterns insist on seeing the worst, or assuming something is there beyond what can be readily explained.  So give it a try and see what you think…

 

 

What happened to national pride?

I’m British, an expat, and I’m feeling disgusted with some aspects of my country today. For why? Just read the following:

War dead to be driven down side streets to avoid the public

The day after Armed Forces Day when Britain is meant to come together and show its respect to the men and women of our military this gets announced.  After the exemplary support shown by Royal Wootton Bassett, who have lined the streets to show their condolences and respect for those making the final journey home, they police and MOD decide it is better to hide their sacrifice from the general public.  Disgusting!

Swearing at police not an offence

Yet more ridiculous and dangerous restrictions put on the under equipped, under paid, and under valued men and women of Britain’s police forces.  Their own management suggests they will not be supported legally for taking any action because:

“The courts do not accept police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words such as: f—, c—, b—–ks, w—–s.”

Then to add insult to injury they are advised:

It also informs officers that to place someone in handcuffs “for officer safety” is “not sufficient” and “we can handcuff anyone but we must be able to justify it”.

So the safety of the officers themselves is rated less important than the rights of the drunk and violent scum who want a fight.

This is a travesty, and empowers those who least deserve any respect to act how they like towards the police, putting both officers and the general public in danger.  If a police officer swears at a member of the public after being spat/punched/assaulted by them they are lambasted in the press, harassed by the courts, and potentially lose their jobs, it all seems stacked in the criminals favour.  I wonder what ‘the guv‘ will have to say!

Anger as Mohammed Fayed burns Harrods royal warrants

The film is a disgusting personal project to defame those who cannot defend themselves.  Even though his court cases have been found without grounds, and the fact that all evidence (including his own) points to the fact that the greater part of any culpability rests with him, his son, and his employees, Mr Fayed just doesn’t stop.

I wonder if he will return the millions of pounds worth of profits he made while trading with those royal warrants, since all his wealth is tainted by association with those he calls a “Nazi”?

I have to agree however, that however spiteful this public act was, I agree with Hugo Vickers, the Royal historian and author, when he said:

“It does seem vindictive and in very bad taste to burn the warrants but I suppose it’s up to him. He was the shopkeeper.”

Mr Fayed was just a shopkeeper, and he no longer owns the shop, or the warrants, his many attempts over the years to bribe and harass the authorities into granting him a British passport have failed, and so good riddance to him.

Ah, I feel better to have ranted a little now, but come on Britain, can we find common sense once more?

Who reads your posts?

The MOD are aware of the risks of the online world, and made these fabulous adverts to raise awareness.

I’ve never been a fan of “checking in” and location aware apps, and these two films just drive home why.

Friday’s Motivational Inspiration

1. Steal like an artist.
2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to start making things.
3. Write the book you want to read.
4. Use your hands.
5. Side projects and hobbies are important.
6. The secret: do good work and put it where people can see it.
7. Geography is no longer our master.
8. Be nice. The world is a small town.
9. Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done.
10. Creativity is subtraction.

I stole this from The Instructables Blog, who in turn borrowed it from How To Steal Like An Artist (and 9 other things nobody told me) by Austin Kleon.

Time to get on and make something this weekend!

Ommwriter – First impressions

So this post is written in Ommwriter.  A minimalistic word processor that is meant to free up the writers creativity by removing the distractions that clutter the screen of a regular word processor.  I’m going to use it now to write my first impressions.

I do like how the screen is taken over by the software.  If you leave your mouse alone (and really you should, you’re here to type, not wriggle around the screen)  the menu bar, and options around the text area fade away leaving nothing but a blank canvas for your words.  Even the borders of the sizable text section fade out, giving no visual limits to your typing space.  In addition, the software prevents you from accessing other windows, masking the taskbar and hiding away the minimize and exit options in the fade-awaymenu and sidebar.  I found this kept me focused on the task in hand (writing this piffle) but did mean I had to scout a bit furtehr to find my screen and research quandries like how much the paid version costs.

Ommwriter with options visible - Screenshot added in WordPress NOT Ommwriter

The cursor is a blinking subscript underscore ( _ ) rather than the more normal flashing pipe ( | ), and it turns out that the software writers did this to remove the wall formed by the vertical cursor.  Not sure how much I’ve been stymied by a cursor before but we’ll see.

Now I am using the free version of the software, and it isavailable for both Mac OSx and Windows.  There is a paid for version which includes a few more themes and schemes, but functionally the two versions are identical. The paid version costs a non-threatening $4.11 with the potential to add a larger donation if you so wish, and a request that you end your price with a 1 to bring good fortune.

Oddly this is a word processor that makes noises all of its own, and the free version only has three themes for background music, and three typing sounds.  The typing sounds can be best described as:
1. A faint electric chirp.
2. Soft electric water droplets.
3. A hard clack sound, electric maracas?

The background music breaks down to:
1. Ambient chimes and plucks with a galloping coconut shell horse in the distance.
2. Classical chimes, with more than a passing nod to a temple bell.
3. Deeper and almost discordant electronic organ sounds.  This is sometimes a bit menacing, but then lifts itself out again.

With all the music the variations seem random, which some may find pleasant and I can think of a few musical friends it will drive crazy.  The good news is that both can be turned on or off easily, and I found myself rapidly switching off the typing sounds as I use a plastic Dell keyboard which makes plenty of clatter on its own. When using a near silent membrane keyboard I found the sounds were a reassuring confirmation of a keystrike, but since i find typing on a membrane keyboard a slow affair due to the wobbly nature of the keys and unpredictable pressure requirements I settled for turning off key sounds and enjoying the regular plastic chatter muted by my headphones. If you want the typing sound, definitely use headphones, otherwise the music works well through your usual speakers if your work environment is quiet.

All good things come in threes apparently, and the same is true of the background themes,
1. A gentle shade of grey with wintery trees in a snow scene at the footer.
2. Bright white, which is just a tad hard on the eyes (and also makes me sneeze with my current cold.)
3. A middling grey, which is probably ideal for working later in the evening; the type appears like eInk on a Nook or Kindle screen.

Overall I think I can see myself using Ommwriter every once in a while to jot down ideas in an uncluttered fashion.  It doesn’t have the formattingand publishing options of Microsoft Word or the like, but it does offer a simple space to work and a relatively small footprint.  The lack of spell check seems odd in this modern world, but also gives me the freedom to make mistakes, which is nice in its own right.  You can save your text to their OMM format (it’s a plain text file with a pretty extension), or to TXT.  You can also output directly to PDF but there is no “print” option to go directly to a printer

So if you want to write with something that feels a little more like a typewriter than a desktop publishing behmoth then give it a try.  With a price of FREE where can you go wrong?

Ommwriter can be found at http://www.ommwriter.com